Happy Monday Spacefish!

What a wonderfully warm week we just had on the Space Coast, the wind machine was cranked up a little more than I would have preferred but with consistently warm temperatures over the past week or so; the fish seemed (at least from my perspective) to be happy, moving around and feeding.

This week I scratched an item off my Florida bucket list; and to be honest it’s one that should have been done much sooner, but better late than never. I caught my first ever Mosquito Lagoon Redfish. I then proceeded to catch 6 more, with a handful of Sea Trout mixed in, and for battling strong winds, I considered the day to be a success. Nothing of banner size was caught, but it was a fun day of fishing, and felt good to finally get up there and experience the magic of sunrise over this historically significant, and highly renowned body of water, and catch a few fish.

Launch Spot

So my original plan was to actually launch out of the Beacon 42 Boat Ramp, which is just north of Haulover Canal, but as I was entering the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge I saw they had a roadside sign that said the Haulover Bridge was closed from 4/22-6/17; so that immediately threw that plan out of the window; from my research into the area, and prior experience I knew that there were two boat ramps south of Haulover which would get me on Mosquito Lagoon, Biolab and Bairs Cove, since Bairs Cove is in the Haulover Canal, and closer to the spots I planned to fish in my original gameplan, I chose that one. My biggest concern for the Biolab ramp was on Saturday morning and through the day I was anticipating pretty strong East winds, and I would have been pinned down in the south west corner of Mosquito Lagoon. So I ended up launching from Bairs Cove – located at at the end of Bairs Cove Road; the Google Address is Bairs Cove Rd, Mims, FL 32754 – but if you click on it on Google Maps you will have GPS directions to the spot.

I used the kayak launch located just behind the boat ramp, once on the water I pedaled west along the canal and hit the Mosquito Lagoon right as the sun was starting to rise.

What Worked – What Did Not

So I woke up at 4:00 am to get on the water and be in my first spot, byt first light. I am not a morning person by natural disposition. The only thing that can get me sprung out of the bed at 4:00 is the thought of topwater blowups; and that time my wife woke up at 3:30 and said she was going into labor our second son. So that being said, I was salivating at the idea of catching a few Trout on topwater as the sun was rising, and then transitioning to finding Redfish as the morning went on. To my great disappointment I did not catch a fish on topwater. All I can say is, it be that way sometimes. I fished this for an hour and after not getting any blowups, I switched over to sub-surface presentations.

What did work was 3.5 inch paddletails on a light jighead. The color I went with due to clean/clear water clarity was the Swampfox (Silver with Gold Flake) Minutemen from Fish, or Die. I rigged it on a ⅛ oz Chartruese Jighead. I tried to keep it on the bottom, short little bounces were effective for Redfish, that were keyed in on smaller shellfish on the bottom; and a few Trout were caught in deeper water of roughly 3-4 feet; in the Trout zone I would slowly retrieve it, and let it fall to the bottom; most Trout were caught on the fall.

The only downside of the jighead was that I was snagging some grass, but I the Redfish seemed to be much more responsive to the jigging of the bait, and letting it sit on it’s nose, with it’s tail up – a shrimp lure probably would have been money; but I didn’t have any. A ned rigged Gulp! Shrimp would probably kill it there. I also caught 2 smaller Reds, and a small Trout on the Clarity Lures Fluke in the “Glassy” color – I rigged this on a 3/0; ⅛ oz Mission Fishin’ Screwlock hook.

Good Spots

So perhaps more important that what baits worked well, I think is the information on where I caught fish. Knowing the wind was going to be strong, my gameplan was to fish the west side of several islanIds, but with openings between them I knew a lot of water and bait would be pushed through. So I planned to fish the northwest; and southwest points of these islands so I would gain protection from the wind, but oxygenated water, and sources of food would be getting pushed in around these points.

The wind ended up being more of an ESE wind, so my gameplanned had to be tweaked while out on the water. So instead of hanging out and fishing on the west side of these islands, I found wind protection on the north side of these islands, it ended up cutting down the total amount of water I could effectively fish, but being able to fish a smaller area well, rather than being pounded by the wind seemed to result in better success for Redfish, the calmer water allowed for a little bit of sight fishing when the sun was shining, and at the very least I was able to see fishing creating wakes in the skinny water when it was cloudy. The X’s on the picture below show the areas I sat in to methodically sit and target Reds; the longer squiggly line showed where the water was deeper and Trout were hanging out.

In the areas between islands there was some grass growth; the water depth was very shallow, and as we near the end of the dry season the right combination of shallower water (easier for sun penetration) and cleaner water (lack of runoff) is usually a good time for seagrass, fingers crossed the grass survives after the summer rains! I have included two pictures below; one is of some grass, and another shows an area with grass patches, mixed in with sand bottom. It kind of reminded me of the Tennessee Vols iconic checkerboard endzone; these shallow flats, with some grass were productive areas to fish for me this past Saturday.

History of Haulover Canal

On my way out from the launch spot, as I pedaled through Haulover Canal, I took a picture of the Historical Marker, which explained the history of Haulover Canal – which is pretty fascinating in, and of itself.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=108012

“Native Americans, explorers and settlers hauled or carried canoes and small boats over this narrow strip of land between Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River. Eventually it became known as the ‘haulover.’ Connecting both bodies of water had long plagued early settlers of this area. Spaniards visited as early as 1605 and slid boats over the ground covered with mulberry tree bark. Early settlers used rollers and skids to drag schooners across. Fort Ann was established nearby in 1837, during the 2nd Seminole War (1835-1842), to protect the haulover from Indians and carry military supplies from the lagoon to the river. In 1852, contractor G.E. Hawes dug the first canal using slave labor. It was 3 ft. deep, 14 ft. wide, and completed in time for the 3rd Seminole War (1856-1858). Steamboat and cargo ships used the passage until the railroad arrived in 1885. By 1887, the Florida Coast Line Canal and Transportation Co. dug a new and deeper canal which you see now, a short distance from the original. The Intracoastal Waterway incorporated the Haulover Canal as a federal project in 1927 to be maintained by the U.S.”

On my way back in I saw many boats anchored up in the canal; soaking bait on the bottom. This deep water canal is a great place to target bigger drum – both of the Red, and Black variety; as well as sharks, and I’ve heard there are also large Tarpon that like to hang out in the deeper water of this canal. One of my students recently went with his dad and they anchored there boat and fished cut bait (blue crabs) on the bottom, and caught some massive Black Drum.

So depending on when you go there; if kayaking through the canal please be mindful of the boats anchored with lines in, also this is a popular spot for shore based anglers so please be respectful and don’t paddle over anyone’s lines — I actually saw a kayak tour group come through and run over people’s lines. It was a tense moment, and to the tour guide’s defense, he was talking and monitoring his group, so I don’t think he ever saw it.

Conclusion

I always pictured my inaugural trip to Mosquito Lagoon resulting in holding up a big Bull Red, a true marsh mule – that didn’t happen for me this past weekend, and that’s okay – I was able to get my feet wet, (literally & metaphorically) and catch more Reds in a singular trip than I’ve caught on any other inshore trip to this point since living in Brevard County, with a few Trout mixed in as well.I found some areas out of the harsh winds, my lines got tight, I got to see a breathtaking sunrise over one of Florida’s most iconic bodies of water, enjoy a beautiful day of fishing. All in all, it was a good day, and well worth the drive up there.

Thank you all, for taking the time to read this report. Thank you to our Paddle Partner, Kayaks By Bo, for helping to make thise weekly reports happen. I hope everyone has a fantastic week! Be healthy, be happy, and may your lines be ever tight. Until next time!

Happy Monday Spacefish!

This past weekend the temperatures were hot, and so was the Largemouth Bass bite at Fox Lake! This is a fishery that I have always enjoyed coming to, and one that I think gets overlooked here on Florida’s Spacecoast, with so much focus and attention going towards Headwaters, and Lake Toho; it is easy to forget what a gem Fox Lake is, especially if you live in northern Brevard. Since I started writing my weekly pieces for Spacefish I have tried to get up here at least twice a year, this was my 4th total trip to Fox Lake, and this was my most productive trip yet – I have always caught decent numbers here, but I finally had a good 20+ catch day, with a few quality fish sprinkled in to make it feel special.

Where to Launch

One cool thing about Fox Lake is that they have an actual kayak launch dock, which is pretty cool to use; it is located in the Northwest portion of Fox Lake PArk, just to the west of the boat ramp. The address is 4400 Fox Lake Rd, Titusville, FL 32796.

What Worked

So I started out throwing a hollow body frog, the Hendrix Fishing Voodoo Frog in Midnight Potion, I got 3 blowups, but went 0/3 in the landing department, which was slightly disappointing, but I was hooking up deep into lily pads, I was actually throwing the frog on the bank and sliding it into the water, so I realized how shallow the fish were, I switched over to the Zoom Speedworm in Junebug Red and started targeting the same areas and it was on. With the worm the hook up ratio was a lot better, and I ended up catching 17 fish on the speedworm. I threw it on a 7 foot baitcasted setup, with 20 pound braid, Texas rigged with a ⅛ oz tungsten worm weight pegged down on the hook. I also caught 4 fish on the Fish or Die Musket in Philadelpia (Junebug Red).

I have been to Fox Lake 4 times, and this water is super tannic, the Bass here are dark; some are almost jet black – black/blue and Junebug type colors are the most effective here, even on bright and sunny days. The Musket I fished weightless and weedless on a 4/0 hook, I split the diamond tail and fished it like a fluke stick, with a jerk bait cadence and this was effective when I needed to skip under overhanging trees, and when I needed to skip into gaps in clumps of reeds. That’s it folks; I’d like to talk about more, but even I am smart enough to KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) when the getting is good.

To borrow a quote from one of my favorite fictional characters, John Lakeman – “it’s never simple like that.” So many times I feel like it’s never simple, I go to a new place, or a place I haven’t been in 6 months and that first 2-3 hours I am having to figure out the fishery, find the patterns. So many times I go out, and I am grinding and probing. It was really nice to go out, and pretty much from the get go get on fish, and keep getting bites at a pretty consistent rate the whole time I was on the water, it reminded me of going to Headwaters before it was over pressured.

Best Type of Areas to Fish

So outside of the Speedworm being the best thing to fish with in any Florida lake outside of live shiners, I think the most important thing I can pass on in this report is what type of areas were fishing the best for me. I haven’t been doing a crazy amount of Bass fishing over the past month or 2; but going back to my Toho report a little while back, and my Lake Baldwin report 2 weeks ago there is a trend that has held up in 3 different lakes fished in 3 different parts of Central Florida over a 2 month span. The trend is finding different types of vegetation (cover) within close proximity of each other. The biggest two fish I caught were hanging close to grass mats and lily pads. The most consistent bite came from fish hanging on the outside edges of reeds, that were close to lily pads. But there is an area on the Southeast part of the lake where there are overhanging trees along the shoreline, and there are reeds and lily pads in the area as well – this area produced the most for concentrated numbers of fish.

Once the wind picked up a consistent pattern was finding an area where the water was moving, but you could get a cast in to an area that was protected, that served as an ambush point. Pictured below is a fish that ate the bait almost as soon as it hit that water. It was tucked up into this shaded pocket that was protected from the windblown water, the area looked like the perfect hidey hole for an ambush predator to nab easy food as it drifted by, I was able to get a cast right into the right spot; which made for an enjoyable catch! I (think) I got a good video of it, and will post on my instagram page this week – “spacefish_kayakangler” if you have instagram go check it out!

Conclusion

After a great outing there this past weekend, I highly recommend going to check out Fox Lake – the nice thing about the trends I experienced this past weekend is that this would be a great lake to go fish if you are a novice kayak angler, or maybe you are an experienced saltwater angler that wants to mix it up and get a little taste of the sweetwater! Most of the areas I fished with roughly within a mile of the launch spot. This is a healthy fishery with a lot of fish to be caught, and this isn’t a place where you have to cover a bunch of water to find them, or have to employ professional level fishing techniques to generate bites. With a little luck & persistence I think you may end up like me, with a pile of chewed up and torn soft plastic worms to clean out of the back of your kayak; thank proverbial junk pile that always symbolizes an action packed day on the water.

To re-count, my key takeaways that I think would make for an easy to execute gameplan are:

– Find areas with mixed cover (emergent vegetation).
– Fish a Junebug Red or Black/Blue Speedworm on a Pegged Texas Rig with either a ⅛ or 3/16 oz tungsten weight; use a slow to medium straight retrieve.
– Have fun!

Thank you for taking the time to read my report this week; I’d like to say THANK YOU to our paddle partner, Kayaks By Bo for supporting our No Motor Dispatch each week. We’re getting close to summer time, that means warm weather and longer days – no better time of the year than late spring, and early summer when it comes to kayaking, paddle boarding, and kayak fishing – stop on it to Kayaks By Bo and browse their amazing inventory of kayaks, paddleboards, Yak Attack accessories, and on the water apparel! Thanks again for taking the time to read, I hope you all have a fantastic week ahead. Stay safe, be happy, and go give a fish a lip piercing! Until next time!